Seafood World in Lighthouse Point Has Old Florida Nailed

A fried seafood combo costs just $20 at Papa Hughie's Seafood World in Lighthouse Point. The platter comes with three fat diver scallops, three jumbo shrimp, three conch fritters made from homemade batter, and four thick wedges of local hog snapper. Each piece of seafood is lightly coated in a simple beer batter and perfectly fried until crisp and juicy. The platter also comes with some Bahamian-style peas and rice and a bowl of crunchy, creamy coleslaw. It's about as evocative of Old Florida as a platter of seafood gets.

Papa Hughie's, a relic that opened in Lighthouse Point in 1976, is all

about that Old Florida vibe. There's no pretense to its fresh seafood,

which it also sells directly from its front-of-house market. All of its

snapper, grouper, tuna, oysters, shrimp, stone crab, scallops, and

lobster are prepared as simply as possible, which often means broiled

or fried with a wedge of lemon on the side. The result is, you get to taste the seafood itself. It's a

showcase of Florida's oceanic bounty, the sort of which is becoming

rarer and rarer these days.

On a recent visit, I also sampled three large stone crab claws for less than $20, plucked

straight from the market case and cracked and served with spicy mustard